"In this sensitive memoir, Canadian film critic and novelist Gilmour tells of the bargain he struck with his son, 15-year-old Jesse, who was unhappy at school. Gilmour would allow Jesse to drop out if he would agree to watch three movies a week with his dad. Over the next three years, the two would wrangle over movies that the elder Gilmour thought his son would love but didn"t (A Hard Day"s Night) and experience the irrational thrills of "guilty pleasures" (Showgirls). More important, they edged slantwise, in typical male fashion, into more personal discussions of big topics, such as sexual jealousy (Last Tango in Paris) and alcoholism (Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry). At the same time, Jesse dealt with serious heartbreak, while his father struggled to find steady work and worried incessantly over whether he had made the right decision in allowing his son to drop out of school. Both for its smart, engaging movie talk and for its touching depiction of...